I hope I've chosen the right board for this topic. If not, perhaps the administrators would move it.

I am running Mint 17.3 Cinnamon. Recently, the boot process has been interrupted by this warning message: "User's $HOME/.dmrc file is being ignored. This prevents the default session and language from being saved. File should be owned by user and have 644 permissions. User's $HOME directory must be owned by user and not writable to other users." I can skip through the warning and nothing bad seems to happen, but it's a nuisance having this two-stage boot. And it would be nice to get things right.

I have little idea how this problem has arisen, unless I have done something stupid (always possible!) in copying files from this computer to a laptop, and vice versa.

Please give me some suggestions (simply expressed!) on how to put this right. Thanks!

John

Last edited by Oldfiddler on Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks Cosmo. I tried that and then did a restart - the same warning came up, but I'd lost the mouse. I then did a physical restart and saw a screen I don't remember before, offering a choice of 17.3 generic, 17.3 recovery mode and a couple of others. I chose the generic and up came the warning again. Any other ideas?

The cold reset of a hanging computer will sooner or later end in a damaged file system with the consequence of possible data loss.
This is the method to restart an otherwise not reacting computer:
Press and hold the alt key and the print key. Whilst still holding both keys pressed enter those letters one after one with a little break between them: r e i s u b. After the last letter the computer will immediately reboot without risking the file system. You can replace the letter b with the letter o, if you want to shut down instead of rebooting.

Back to the problems:

We will now check, if there are really ownership problems in your account:
Mark the following command and press ctrl-c

open a terminal and press ctrl-shift-V
Mark the complete result inclusive the command with the mouse and press ctrl-shift-C
In the forum click the Code-button (looks like </>) above the text edit box, than press ctrl-v.

Beforehand: What does this mean?
Oldfiddler wrote: ⤴Fri Apr 27, 2018 11:24 am
I then did a physical restart
Pressing and holding the power key?

My computer has a narrow reset button next to the power button - I used this to restart. I'd already closed all the systems before the first restart, and so the only thing open was the warning message.

... My computer has a narrow reset button next to the power button - I used this to restart. ...

Dear God . That's even more dangerous than a hard shutdown using the power button.

You don't hear this as much as you used to because hardware reset buttons are less common, buit Linux users used to be commonly advised to cover up their reset button with something so it couldn't be used. As I'm advising right now.

... My computer has a narrow reset button next to the power button - I used this to restart. ...

Dear God . That's even more dangerous than a hard shutdown using the power button.

You don't hear this as much as you used to because hardware reset buttons are less common, buit Linux users used to be commonly advised to cover up their reset button with something so it couldn't be used. As I'm advising right now.

and press the Enter-key; you get prompted for your password, enter it.
Now still in the same terminal press ctrl-shift-V
Run this command and wait until it has finished. It does not produce a readable output.
Press twice ctrl-d
Immediately log off and back into your account.

There is one thing, where I do not have an explanation. The error message says indeed 644. But if you look into a freshly created user account, than you will find, that Mint (I assume Ubuntu also) set the permissions to 600. Don't ask me why there is this difference, I don't know. But fact is, that there is no reason, why others than the owner should have any permission at all and that with the default 600 there comes never such an error message. So advised 600 with the intention to get the OP at the safe side.

and press the Enter-key; you get prompted for your password, enter it.
Now still in the same terminal press ctrl-shift-V
Run this command and wait until it has finished. It does not produce a readable output.
Press twice ctrl-d
Immediately log off and back into your account.

I followed your instructions precisely. I'm afraid the same warning message came up again. Can I tell you anything about ownership/ permissions in the .dmrc file which would help pin it down?

... My computer has a narrow reset button next to the power button - I used this to restart. ...

Dear God . That's even more dangerous than a hard shutdown using the power button.

You don't hear this as much as you used to because hardware reset buttons are less common, buit Linux users used to be commonly advised to cover up their reset button with something so it couldn't be used. As I'm advising right now.

I hear your message! It is of course an old machine.

I forgot to mention a better way to do shut down when the system's hung. Hold down both the Alt and PrtSc/SysReq keys. Then type, slowly, R, E, I, S, U, and O. Case doesn't matter. To restart instead of shutting down do the same thing but type REISUB instead.

If you view the permissions after logging back in, you will find the system has changed the permissions to "600" ( -rw------ ). You can substitute "600" in this command if you wish.

This matches with that, what I wrote above: In a new account the permission for this file gets set to 600. Actually this file does not created during creation of the account, but at the first log in.
I cannot see the sense to set permission (if needed for correction) to 644, if the system changes them anyway to 600. Consequently I stay with my advice for 600. Of course I could write 600 or 644, but with guarantee this would create new confusion.